Posts tagged “Elizabeth Duckett Case”

Biography

Levi Casey had many names bestowed upon him during his short lifetime. He was an Overmountain Man,[1] Militia Man, Captain, Colonel, Brigadier General, Congressman, Senator, son, brother, husband, and father; most importantly of all was the title Patriot.

Levi Casey was born in the year 1749 in the state of South Carolina according to records submitted and accepted into the D.A.R. files.[2] That would seem accurate considering he died in the first day of February 1807 in his 59th year which would put his birth year at 1749, unless he died on his birthday. He was born in what was then the old Ninety-Six District in which he had a hand in dividing into what would become Newberry County.[3]

In the Revolutionary War, brothers Benjamin, Randolph and Levi lent service as did their father, Abner Brooks Casey. Abner gave service and provided aide to the cause. Abner Brooks Casey was awarded a Bounty Land Grant in Kentucky for his effort.

The Casey brothers were in the Second Carolina Regiment under Col. Elijah Clark and fought in the Battle of King’s Mountain. Levi Casey became a (started out as a Captain) Lieutenant, then a Colonel of South Carolina Troops, and finally a Brigadier General, commanding the brigade consisting of the Laurens, and Newberry regiments. He commanded a company at the attack on Savannah and distinguished himself at Rocky Mount, King’s Mountain, Hanging Rock, Musgrove’s Mils, Fishing Creek, Blackstocks, and Cowpens.

After the fall of Charlestown, the British authorities considered South Carolina under British control, and some of the rebels even went to the British camp and sought protection. Levi and others would not entertain taking that action for one second. They were true blue and staunch patriots of the American cause and would willingly take any risk to secure Independence.

US Congressman. Elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Eighth and Ninth Congresses, he served from 1803 until his death. Casey was a South Carolina native but very little is known of his early life.

During the Revolutionary War he was commissioned a Captain in the Continental Army and fought with distinction at the Siege of Savannah (1779) and at the battles of Rocky Mount (1780), Hanging Rock (1780), and Cowpens (1781).

At the end of the conflict he was a Colonel in command of South Carolina’s Little River Regiment, and subsequently became a Brigadier General of the State Militia.

He was a five-term member of the State Senate (1781 and 1782, 1800 to 1802) and served nine terms in the State House of Representatives (1786 to 1788, 1792 to 1795, 1798 to 1799), prior to his election to the US House.

In 1802, he was elected as a Republican to serve in the U. S. House of Representatives within the 8th and 9th Congresses representing the state of South Carolina. There he served the 7th District that included Abbeville, Laurens and Newberry Districts. He served in that capacity from 4 March 1803 until his death 1 February 1807.

He was elected to the 10th Congress before the close of the 9th Congress, but died, likely in the state house, in Washington D. C. on the first day of February from a massive heart attack.

He was the first elected dignitary in our nation to die while in office (followed closely by another elected official who was buried in the Congressional Cemetery before Levi Casey was disinterred) and was initially buried at the St. Paul’s Presbyterian Cemetery [Rock Creek Cemetery] in Georgetown. Being the first experience in our young nation of someone dying while serving in office, there was no official burying ground for dignitaries at the time and that fact created a little bit of a conundrum. Efforts were quickly made to secure and dedicate a spot for just such dignitaries, and thus the Union Cemetery known as the Congressional Cemetery came to fruition.

Levi Casey was reelected to a third term but died before taking his seat in the Tenth Congress. Originally buried in a cemetery outside the Washington city limits, he was re-interred with honors at the Union (Congressional) Cemetery on 10 August 1832. [4]

It must have been good to have been one of Levi Casey’s constituents when he served them, his state, and his country. They were fortunate that a patriot and politician like him would share his and his colleagues’ progress and lack thereof for the young nation and its citizens. His wife, Elizabeth from the respected Duckett family of Maryland, had a lot of influence on his service as a political figure. The rule and custom of the Caseys was when he returned home from the “Federal City” he issued and sent out invitations ‘to all the people in his district (covered several counties), to assemble at his house on a day named, at which Gen. Casey would have a large barbecue and ample provisions for man and beast, and his friends were required to spend a week as his guests, during which time he would render to them a full account of his acts in Congress; and the balance of the time was spent in feasting and dancing and such other amusements as suited the tastes and inclinations of his guests

Levi Casey changed the landscape of our country in more ways than one. In the article written in The Edgefield Advertiser, a South Carolina Newspaper, Levi Casey is mentioned. The text that mentions Casey reads as follows:

“It is recorded in Judge O’Neal’s Annals of Newberry County that in 1783 an ordinance was passed appointing Commissioners to divide the Districts of Charleston, Georgetown, Beaufort, Cheraw, Camden, Ninety-Six and Orangeburg into counties of convenient size. In Ninety-Six the Commissioners were “Andrew Pickens, Richard Anderson, Thomas Braddon, Levy Casey, Philemon, Waters and Arthur Simkins.”[6]

“Gen. Levi Casey, Representative in Congress from this State died at the City of Washington, on the 1st inst. The usual mourning and funeral honours were voted him.”[12]

There are researchers who list Brigadier General Levi Casey’s death date as 3 February 1807, but his death occurred on Sunday, the first day of February in the year 1807. His obituary was published in The National Intelligencer on Friday, the 6th day of February 1807 and states that Levi Casey died on Sunday. This man must have been larger than life, for he was the first, or one of the first that received the high honor of a state funeral. The text of his obituary follows:

Died, in this city, on Sunday morning at 4 o’clock, 1st instant of a pulindnick disease, Brigadier General Levi Casey, of South Carolina, in the fifty-ninth year of his age.

The fatal illness of this amiable gentleman was but of short duration; his closing moments were passed with that serenity which arises from the reflection of a well-spent life; his last breath was drawn with a calmness, resulting only from true fortitude and virtue.

Early in the revolutionary war, General Casey received the command of a company, with which, he gallantly assisted at the siege of Savannah, in the attempt made by the Americans and French to storm the British works. He was afterwards distinguished as a brave and prudent officer in the battles of Rockey Mount, Hanging rock, Musgoves, King’s mountains, Fishdamford, Blackstocks and at the Cowpens, where, he performed very important services to General Morgan. Through the whole war he enjoyed, as a brave and valuable officer, the applause, friendship and confidence of General Sumpter.

During many years after the close of that war, in which his conduct was so important and successful, he represented Newbury district in the state legislature, both in the Senate and House of Representatives, and was, at the time of his death, on the fourth term of service in Congress, a representative from South Carolina.

The friends and family of no man have more cause to lament a loss of this land, than those of General Casey; for in sweetness and equanimity of temper, he was equaled by few; in the tenderness of affection, of domesticities, surpassed by none.

He was from the commencement of the revolution, a uniform patriot; he has left behind him, the surest testimony of public confidence and private worth, the universal love of his neighbors. Painful as the regrets of his family must be, they will derive some consolation from the marked respect which was paid to his funeral by the national legislature. In this too, will the old revolutionary soldier participate; because, he will be in it, the memory of the brave is not forgotten.

The following is the order of procession as it moved from the capitol.

1. Marine Corps

2. Chaplains of Congress

3. Ministers

4. Physicians

5. Corpse

6. Pall bearers, (six Generals)

7. Mourners

8. Speaker preceded by the sergeant of arms, and followed by the Clerk

9. Members of the House of Representatives

10. President of the Senate preceded by the sergeant at arms, and followed by the Secretary

11. Members of the Senate

12. Heads of Departments and officers thereof

13. Citizens.

When the procession arrived at Rock Creek, it was formed on foot, (two and two) the carriages following behind, and proceeded in that manner to the grave.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate, and the Pall-bearers, with white scarves over the right shoulder and white gloves. The chaplains of Congress and other ministers with white scarves over the right shoulder and round the hat, and white gloves.

The sergeants at arms, clerk of the House, and Secretary of the Senate, with white scarves over the right shoulder only.

The members of the House of Representatives, with black crape on the left arm.[13]